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by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 00:03:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi, the infamous street thug, is captured and must choose between execution, and basically suicide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choose

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the prompt: eruri prompt: when erwin asked levi the last time to join the survey corps levi broke down crying. he saw it as two options 1. Basically commit suicide by joining the survey corps or 2. Be executed by the military police. he saw both as a punishment for something he's always had to do and had been forced to do: survive by all costs. erwin was shocked when he started crying and did his best to help him calm down

“So, what will it be, Levi? Join the survey corps, or be handled by the military police? You have those two options.”

Levi, the infamous thug of the underground, someone that people shook to the brim just by hearing his name, and impeccable force, was sitting chained to a chair. Of all the things that could ever happen, he was sitting in a chair being forced to choose death in two different forms. Suicide through the survey corps? Execution through the military police? What kind of choices were these? 

Surviving was the number one goal, and he had never did anything that was unnecessary to his survival, but this was cruel. Levi never knew anything but the cruel life he had been forced to live, but never had he been forced to choose death, or suicide. He always had a choice of life, albeit not the best one, but it was still living. He was breathing, and could see, and could feel, but these people didn’t see him as a person. They saw him as vermin who didn’t deserve to even walk around let alone have a normal life. He had been condemned.

“Why are you only giving me these choices? Do you military people hold no regards to people’s feelings?” 

Levi was livid, fury leaking from his pores, emanating from him. Anyone could feel it if they were standing within ten feet of him. How dare they give him such options. The man sitting in front of him looked almost bored, like he had much better things to do than deal with some piece of shit street thug who was headed towards his death anyway. It actually hurt a bit to see that literally no one cared what happened to him. He was a person too wasn’t he? He was just surviving in the squalor that he’d been presented with.  
He knew of the man who was staring apathetically at him, and the reason for this is only because he was the one Levi decided to attack, which ended badly for him. He was Commander Erwin Smith, leader of the Survey Corps, and he was trying to recruit Levi to ‘get him off the streets’ and ‘save his life’. Bullshit. Levi called utter bullshit. How dare he test his intelligence to such degrees?

“I know that I’m going to die whether I pick execution or leaving the damn walls to be eaten alive. You’re basically telling me to choose suicide or homicide! What kind of chance is that!? You don’t realize what kind of life you people have. You can survive without robbing people for enough money to eat for the first damn time in a week, and you don’t have to sleep with a knife out of fear that you’ll be beaten or raped at night. I was just SURVIVING. I NEVER did ANYTHING that I didn’t ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO! You’re all spoiled assholes…”

By now, Levi was sobbing, wrestling the cuffs on his wrists that bound him to the chair. It was no use. He was going to die one way or another by the hands of people who couldn’t care less what happened to him, people who didn’t understand. His face burned with tears, the foreign feeling infuriating him. He hadn’t cried in years. He wanted to be strong and stoic, never letting anyone in.

The whole time up until now, Erwin had stayed stark still and silent while he listened to Levi scream at him, already knowing that his deadpanned expression pissed the street rat off to no end. He was, unbeknownst to Levi, actually listening with great interest to what he was saying. Levi was right. No one here realized the struggles of these people who had nothing, and Erwin felt like he really was asking Levi to choose between two types of death, which really wasn’t fair, but it was the best way to keep him alive. Such talent shouldn’t be wasted. 

Erwin stood and walked over to the frantic boy, kneeling in front of him and taking his hands into his. He peered up and wiped the impassive look right off his face. He wanted to show Levi that he meant what he was going to say, and he wanted Levi to WANT to live this life in the best opportunities he could receive, which was this.

“I’m going to take these cuffs off of your hands. Please do not run.”

With that, the metal went clanging to the floor, and Levi simply sat there, pulling his knees to his chest, looking so much more afraid than he ever had in his whole life. He wanted to shrink away.

“Now, Levi. I do not understand the type of life you had, and nor do I understand how you’re feeling or how you’ve felt ever since your hardships started. But I pledge to keep you safe here. You will not die here. You in yourself have immense talent, which you could protect yourself with to no end. But if your skills ever leave you, even for an instant, I will be there to save you. I will not let you die. That is the difference you will receive if you pledge your life to me and the men and women of the Survey Corps.”

Erwin then pulled the small boy into a gripping hug, not minding the tears that soaked his shoulder. He felt Levi nod into his shirt as he gripped onto him like a child. He had agreed, and now Erwin felt like he’d saved the boy’s life. From then on out the two were always by each other’s side, and neither were ever in danger again.


End file.
